Acute In Vivo Response to an Alternative Implant for Urogynecology

Purpose. To investigate in vivo the acute host response to an alternative implant designed for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Methods. A biodegradable scaffold was produced from poly-L-lactic acid (PLA) using the electrospinning technique. Human and rat adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) were isolated and characterized by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and differentiation assays. PLA scaffolds were seeded and cultured for 2 weeks with human or rat ADSCs. Scaffolds with and without human or rat ADSCs were implanted subcutaneously on the abdominal wall of rats. After 3 and 7 days, 6 animals from each group were sacrificed. Sections from each sample were analyzed by Haematoxylin and Eosin staining, Sirius red staining, and immunohistochemistry for CD68, PECAM-1, and collagen I and III. Results. Animals responded to the scaffolds with an acute macrophage response. After 7 days of implantation, there was extensive host cell penetration, new blood vessel formation, and new collagen deposition throughout the full thickness of the samples without obvious differences between cell-containing and cell-free scaffolds. Conclusions. The acute in vivo response to an alternative implant (both with and without cells) for the treatment of SUI and POP showed good acute integration into the host tissues

Bruker2nifti: Magnetic Resonance Images converter from Bruker ParaVision to Nifti format

In clinical and pre-clinical research involving medical images, the first step following a Magnetic Resonance Imaging dataset acquisition, usually entails the conversion of image data from the native scanner format to a format suitable for the intended analysis. The proprietary [Bruker ParaVision](https://www.bruker.com/products/mr/preclinical-mri/software/service-support.html) software currently does not provide the tools for conversion of the data to suitable and open formats for research, such as nifti [@cox2004sort], for which most of the available tools for medical image analysis are implemented. For this purpose we have designed and developed [bruker2nifti](https://github.com/SebastianoF/bruker2nifti), a pip-installable Python tool provided with a Graphical User Interface to convert from the native MRI Bruker format to the nifti format, without any intermediate step through the DICOM standard formats [@Mildenberger2002]. Bruker2nifti is intended to be a tool to access the data structure and to parse all parameter files of the Bruker ParaVision format into python dictionaries, to select the relevant information to fill the Nifti header and data volume. Lastly it is meant to be a starting point where to integrate possible future variations in Bruker hardware and ParaVision software future releases

Airway tissue engineering for congenital laryngotracheal disease

Regenerative medicine offers hope of a sustainable solution for severe airway disease by the creation of functional, immunocompatible organ replacements. When considering fetuses and newborns, there is a specific spectrum of airway pathologies that could benefit from cell therapy and tissue engineering applications. While hypoplastic lungs associated with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) could benefit from cellular based treatments aimed at ameliorating lung function, patients with upper airway obstruction could take advantage from a de novo tissue engineering approach. Moreover, the international acceptance of the EXIT procedure as a means of securing the precarious neonatal airway, together with the advent of fetal surgery as a method of heading off postnatal co-morbidities, offers the revolutionary possibility of extending the clinical indication for tissue-engineered airway transplantation to infants affected by diverse severe congenital laryngotracheal malformations. This article outlines the necessary basic components for regenerative medicine solutions in this potential clinical niche

Connexin 43 is overexpressed in human fetal membrane defects after fetoscopic surgery

This project was funded by the RoseTrees Trust (M400, TTC), the QMUL Life Sciences Initiative, Institutional Strategic Support Fund from the Wellcome Trust (105626/Z/14/Z, TTC) and supported by researchers at the National Institute for Health Research, University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (ALD)

Dynamically balanced online random forests for interactive scribble-based segmentation

Interactive scribble-and-learning-based segmentation is attractive for its good performance and reduced number of user interaction. Scribbles for foreground and background are often imbalanced. With the arrival of new scribbles,the imbalance ratio may change largely. Failing to deal with imbalanced training data and a changing imbalance ratio may lead to a decreased sensitivity and accuracy for segmentation. We propose a generic Dynamically Balanced Online Random Forest (DyBa ORF) to deal with these problems,with a combination of a dynamically balanced online Bagging method and a tree growing and shrinking strategy to update the random forests. We validated DyBa ORF on UCI machine learning data sets and applied it to two different clinical applications: 2D segmentation of the placenta from fetal MRI and adult lungs from radiographic images. Experiments show it outperforms traditional ORF in dealing with imbalanced data with a changing imbalance ratio,while maintaining a comparable accuracy and a higher efficiency compared with its offline counterpart. Our results demonstrate that DyBa ORF is more suitable than existing ORF for learning-based interactive image segmentation

Aloha Wanderwell Baker

A traveler, adventurer, and filmmaker, Aloha Wanderwell Baker’s career spanned over twenty-five years and took her to over fifty countries. Heralded in the promotion of her lectures as “the world’s most widely travelled girl,” Aloha participated in the production of eleven travelogues from 1921 until approximately 1952. She presented these films with live lectures across the United States and internationally. The travelogues ranged in both length and style, reflective of the changing practice of travel lecture filmmaking in the first half of the 20th century and Aloha’s own evolution from crew member to producer-director

Unique tracheal fluid microRNA signature predicts response to FETO in patients with congenital diaphragmatic hernia

"Epub ahead of print 2015 Jan 5"OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: Our objective was to determine the fetal in vivo microRNA signature in hypoplastic lungs of human fetuses with severe isolated congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) and changes in tracheal and amniotic fluid of fetuses undergoing fetoscopic endoluminal tracheal occlusion (FETO) to reverse severe lung hypoplasia due to CDH. METHODS:: We profiled microRNA expression in prenatal human lungs by microarray analysis. We then validated this signature with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in tracheal and amniotic fluid of CDH patients undergoing FETO. We further explored the role of miR-200b using semiquantitative in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry for TGF-ß2 in postnatal lung sections. We investigated miR-200b effects on TGF-ß signaling using a SMAD-luciferase reporter assay and Western blotting for phospho-SMAD2/3 and ZEB-2 in cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells. RESULTS:: CDH lungs display an increased expression of 2 microRNAs: miR-200b and miR-10a as compared to control lungs. Fetuses undergoing FETO display increased miR-200 expression in their tracheal fluid at the time of balloon removal. Future survivors of FETO display significantly higher miR-200 expression than those with a limited response. miR-200b was expressed in bronchial epithelial cells and vascular endothelial cells. TGF-ß2 expression was lower in CDH lungs. miR-200b inhibited TGF-ß-induced SMAD signaling in cultures of human bronchial epithelial cells. CONCLUSIONS:: Human fetal hypoplastic CDH lungs have a specific miR-200/miR-10a signature. Survival after FETO is associated with increased miR-200 family expression. miR-200b overexpression in CDH lungs results in decreased TGF-ß/SMAD signaling